San Antonio College Library

This well-documented brief demonstrates that both poverty and excessive economic inequality are inimical to the maintenance of a healthy republic, and notes that providing a living wage is not only fair, but is superior to any other public policy such as cash transfers (or the Earned Income Tax Credit) in the effort to fight poverty.

"Tells the story behind the US Supreme Court's 1937 decision in West Coast Hotel v. Parrish upholding Washington State's minimum wage law for women; illuminates the lives of those involved in the litigation and reveals the case's impact on local, state, and national levels" --

Describes and analyses the operation of current minimum wage policies and politics in the United Kingdom and the USA. Traces the origins, history and development of minimum wages in the two countries. Argues that what most influences the minimum wage in both countries is the degree to which it is integrated in the political vision of how the state should assist the poor.

"Making It Work" examines Milwaukee's New Hope program, an experiment testing the effectiveness of an anti-poverty initiative that provided health and child care subsidies, wage supplements, and other services to full-time low-wage workers. Employing parent surveys, teacher reports, child assessment measures, ethnographic studies, and state administrative records, "Making It Work" provides a detailed picture of how a mother's work trajectory affects...

With almost one-third of all working people today earning wages below the official poverty line, community coalitions around the country have responded by proposing "living wage" ordinances at the municipal level. This book analyzes the specifics of this new economic concept, as well as documents the results of its implementation in cities around the nation. Illustrated.

Supporters of a minimum wage argue that it fights poverty by providing all workers a basic income to enable them to afford food, rent, and other necessities. Opponents argue that it increases unemployment. Should the minimum wage be abolished?

Papers presented at a conference held at the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C., Nov. 1 and 2, 1979. Includes bibliographies.

Minimum wages exist in more than one hundred countries, both industrialized and developing. The United States passed a federal minimum wage law in 1938 and has increased the minimum wage and its coverage at irregular intervals ever since; in addition, as of the beginning of 2008, thirty-two states and the District of Columbia had established a minimum wage higher than the federal level, and numerous other local jurisdictions had in place "living wage"...

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the United States, and Mexico was supposed to protect the environment, create high-wage U.S. jobs, and raise the living standards of all three countries. The downside is the loss of over half a million U.S. jobs when companies moved jobs to cheaper labor markets, and the near destruction of the Mexican farming industry due to government subsidized produce from the U.S. entering the Mexican...

Topics include labour-market institutions and unemployment, relative wages and employment, gender pay gap, policy implications and future research directions.